Pandemic-era social distancing requirements, ongoing remote working arrangements, and considerable employee lifestyle changes over the past five years have not been kind to traditional workplace celebrations. Consequently, many companies considerably scaled back, or entirely dropped the once inevitable office holiday party. Now, it may be staging a comeback. Surveys suggest 2025 may mark the return of year-end workplace fetes as an entrenched and beloved seasonal custom, as large majorities of both employers and workers are already planning for the festivities
While after-work drinks, meals, and even offsite events remain important team-building activities, the office holiday party has struggled to regain former status as a red-letter date on the workplace calendar. But according to the self-described “food tech platform” ezCater, year-end company knees-ups are making a major comeback in 2025. Its survey of over 1,600 employees and business executives found 82 percent of workers said they plan on attending their business’s seasonal bash this year, well up from 70 percent in 2024.
Business owners are also shaking off any pandemic era Scrooge-esque attitudes toward holiday office festivities. Fully 92 percent of responding employers said they plan to commit significant funds to those celebrations, with 51 percent saying they’ll spend more on them in 2025 than last year. The survey also found the average business budgets for office holiday party food and drinks will increase by 31 percent over 2024, rising to nearly $60 per participant.
Why go to that expense and bother to organize year-end office merry-making that often elicited groans from pre-pandemic era holdouts, and was virtually eliminated from workplaces as Covid spread?
On the practical side, both employers and staff benefit from the increased bonding that 83 percent of survey respondents said holiday office events encourage. Another 80 percent of participants said they believed year-end gatherings are even more effective in bringing coworkers and managers closer than before the pandemic — especially amid enduring remote and hybrid work arrangements.
Indeed, nearly a third of all respondents working under hybrid rules conditions said they had wound up feeling they’d missed out on something good after deciding not to attend year-end workplace fetes in recent years. They may have had good reason for thinking so. Fully 55 percent of survey participants said they were looking forward to this year’s office party for the non-business, informal socializing and friendship-forging opportunities those present. In that way, personal enjoyment supports professional wellbeing and unity — and vice versa.
“The workplace holiday party is critical for strengthening team connection and morale, especially for hybrid and remote teams,” said ezCater’s vice president of people Robert Kaskel in comments announcing the results. “In an increasingly disconnected world, companies should maximize these festive opportunities, because ultimately, stronger connections result in higher job satisfaction, productivity, and retention.”
But not all people feel quite as enthusiastic for their impending annual office gatherings.
Nearly half, or 45 percent of survey respondents admitted to getting stressed about attending the functions, with younger workers the most likely to feel that anxiety. Still, who among us hasn’t at some point also dreaded facing what 60 percent of Gen Zers cited as their most feared office party scenario — finding themselves standing alone with nobody to talk to?
Other year-end work party situations that worried survey respondents included being stuck in unwanted conversations, saying something to a manager they’d regret, and navigating hot or divisive topics during exchanges with colleagues.
To ensure maximum employee pleasure — and attendance — employers may want to tailor their holiday workplace party to participants’ stated preferences. Those included planning the gatherings on Fridays, in December rather than November, and scheduling them in the afternoon instead of evenings.
Respondents also favored holding the festivities in events spaces rather than workplaces, using buffet-style food layouts, and allowing workers to bring a guest of their own choosing.
Perhaps understanding that last desire, 77 percent of business executives who answered the survey said they’re making that “plus-one” allowance for 2025 holiday parties — up from 16 percent last year. Clearly, even bosses don’t like seeing people standing alone with nobody to talk to.
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Bruce Crumley
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